Wallenberg Raoul

Raoul Wallenberg Schutz-Pass Documentation with Contemporary Original Stamps and Manuscript Markings.

Single page contemporary photographic copy Document signed Schutz-Pass (a protective "pass" functioning as a Swedish passport), in Hungarian. The copy captures what in the original was Raoul Wallenberg's signature next to the stamp, and along the bottom left corner his iconic "W", pen stroke, and "R", one page 8" x 11.5". Completed in typescript. Dated "August 27, 1944". The word "Masolat" is penned along the top edge (translated as the word "copy"). Signed on the verso with the original signed certification stamp which loosely translated states the signatory is signing a copy and has seen the original document. Expected folds with separation along one fold line. An exceptional document signed by one of the 20th-century’s greatest humanitarians. Accompanied by a photocopy of the Schutz-Pass for Dr. Andreas Glucksthal, and a photocopy of a Schutz-Pass for his daughter.

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg engaged in extraordinary efforts to save Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. His heroic actions began in July 1944, when “the Swedish Foreign Ministry, at the request of Jewish organizations, sent him on a rescue mission to Budapest, as an attaché to the Swedish Embassy. By this time, 476,000 Hungarian Jews had already been deported to extermination camps, and deportation had been ordered for Budapest Jewry. Wallenberg’s chief operation was the distribution of Swedish certificates of protection (‘Wallenberg Passports’ or Schutz-Pass),” along with Schutzbrief (Letters of Protection), and requests of exemption addressed to the Külföldieket Ellenörzö Hatóság (National Central Authority Supervising Foreigners). Armed with such documents, Jews fell under the protection of Sweden, an officially neutral nation. “When the Soviet army was closing in on Budapest and the other diplomats left the city, Wallenberg chose to remain there in order to protect ‘his Jews’ in any eventuality which might arise. He went to the Soviet headquarters in Debrecyn for that purpose; all trace was lost of him and he was never seen again alive” (Encyclopedia Judaica).

These priceless documents, granting escape from otherwise certain death, were paid for dearly with the life of one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century.